The White House claimed last week that George W. Bush's 51 percent of the popular vote, the smallest margin of victory for an incumbent since Woodrow Wilson in 1916, earned him a "mandate." So you'd think then, that since 60 percent of voters in last Tuesday's election supported some form of legal protection for same-sex couples -- legal marriage or civil unions -- that he'd drop his proposal to enshrine discrimination in the Constitution in the form of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

According to Karl Rove, the president will choose to defy the will of the people on this front, and will try again for a marriage amendment in his second term. Why? For a "hopeful and decent" society, Rove said on Sunday. Apparently Bush is choosing to ignore the fact that a majority of voters don't see anything "hopeful and decent" about denying gay couples legal protections.